A Note on Slow Down Software for Transcribing

Okay, after posting the WBJ Green Dolphin Street transcription, I received a couple of emails asking what software I used to transcribe the solo. In this post I'll give a quick rundown of what I use.

First off, my computer is an iMac and the notation software I use is Sibelius. It is the only notation software that I use. Before buying it I played with trial versions of both Finale and Sibelius. Finale was just too unintuitive and frustrating to use. Sibelius was easier overall to get in to and while some parts of it are counter intuitive, for the most part it is intuitive and you don't need to look at the manual. Finale required constant manual reference. I'm sure that once you get familiar with it, Finale is fine and easy to work with but out of the box Sibelius is easier to start writing decent manuscripts.

Slow down software is a different story. Remember that I am on the Mac so you Windows cats might have some additional software available to you that I haven't fooled with. I use two programs on the Mac to slow down the solos, Amazing Slow Downer by Roni Music and Transcribe! by Seventh String. Both programs are useful for me.

Amazing Slow Downer is straight forward, simple, and quick to use. The audio quality is better than Transcribe at really slow speeds like 35% or 25%. At 50% and faster both programs sound great and are pretty close. I mostly use Amazing Slow Downer to figure out random phrases or initially when I am trying to learn a solo and play along with it.

Transcribe is a little more cumbersome to use but is absolutely great when I actually get down to putting the solo down on paper. It has a graphic of the amplitude of the music so it is more visual than Amazing Slow Downer and whats more awesome is that you can mark measures, beats, and sections by tapping along to the music as it plays. After tapping in the info you can see your choruses, measures, and beat markers above the soundwave graphic for easy reference to what part of the song you are on. Of course you can zoom in or out to any scale. It makes it easy to figure out where difficult notes fall relative to the beat. Overall it makes it much easier to know where you are in the solo and also in getting the solo written down. Transcribe also tries to help you figure out what note is being played. If you highlight a small portion of the wave, it shows you what notes it thinks it hears. This sort of works okay but overtones show up as well to confuse matters. Try to transcribe organ and you see the notes of all of the stops pulled in the registration, so it thinks each note is like 4 or 5 notes. One other awesome feature of Transcribe is that it will also do video. If you have an avi of mp4 file you can open it up and slow it down just like an audio file. This is great for studying concert videos and stuff you download off youtube. If you have a DVD you do need to rip it and convert it to a video file for it to open up in Transcribe but it is a great feature to have even though I don't use it much. Amazing Slow Downer doesn't do video but Roni Music makes a program called Ultimate DVD Player which will slow down video. Now it only does DVDs, it won't open avi or mp4 files. The quality of the video slow down of Ultimate DVD Player is a bit better than what Transcribe will do, but Transcribe's handling of video files makes it much more convenient.

Of course both programs allow you to finely adjust the pitch and change the key of the tune and have equalizers and vocal removers. So the rest of the features are close. I use both about equally. On other thing about Amazing Slow Downer is that it is also available as an iPad/iPhone app. The app version doesn't have the sound quality of the full Mac OSX version due to the lack of horsepower in the iPhone and for the same reasons it doesn't go as slow, but overall it is pretty much the same program with the same features in a portable less expensive package. Now I actually use my iPad and the ASD app more than my MacBook with the ASD program since the iPad is always on, smaller and the battery lasts forever.

Finally, today I saw that there is a new program that I may get. Superscope, the guys that have been putting out adjustable speed cassette and CD players and recorders, now have put out a software program that works on Mac and Windows. It is called Elevation and there are two versions, the full version and the limited edition (LE) version. I found out about it after getting an email from Jamey Aebersold about his Superscope CD/digital hardware sale. I was curious about the hardware and wondered why people would spend $800 to $1000 for a hardware slow down device when you can get a $15 app or a $30 program for your laptop. After going to the Superscope site to see the features of the hardware, I discovered that they also have this Elevation program out. The LE version is $80, the full version is $150. The LE only does the slowdown type stuff whereas the full version is also an audio recorder and editor.

I downloaded the trial for the LE version and was blown away by the sound quality of the slow down. At 25% speed, it sounded so clean and pure, I was amazed. I thought that it might just be the CD so I tried it in Amazing Slow Downer and Transcribe and at 25% they both had that underwater/weird reverberation artifact that makes it difficult to really hear what is going on in the difficult passages that you have to go down to 25% to try to figure out. I really wasn't expecting Elevation to be that good. I may just have to get it for the difficult stuff. As far as features go, it is almost like a cross between the two programs mentioned above. It is quick and easy to use like ASD and it does show the amplitude waveform like Transcribe, however it doesn't let you mark beats and label the waveform like Transcribe. If I get it it would most likely replace Amazing Slow Downer as Transcribe is still great for helping you write the solo down after ou have it figured out. One negative thing about Elevation though is that it only does MP3s or CDs (it will rip CDs to MP3 if you want) it won't do Apple Lossless files, so you would have to burn them to CD or convert them first. Unfortunately almost all of my Jazz collection is ripped into iTunes using Apple Lossless so that I could maintain the high fidelity of the recordings. Also it only does audio, no video. But the sound quality is truly amazing and clear.

Anyway for those who asked, that is my take on the world of transcribing and notation software. If any of you have a hardware Superscope, I'd be curious to know how the sound quality compares to the Elevation software.

Peace,
Big D

Bish's Green Dolphin Street solo from the Speak Low LP (1961)

Alright here is the first transcription. It is from Bishop's Speak Low recording made in 1961. Note that this album was re-released on the Black Lion label under the title "Milestones."  The Milestones album has a few alternate takes but none of Green Dolphin Street. Also, I think the pitch on the Speak Low LP is off by about 70 cents sharp or so. The pitch has been corrected on the Milestones album.

Now about the transcription. I just transcribed the right hand line and none of the left hand comping, which I may work on later after I get the rest of the album down. Right now I am just trying to see how he builds his lines and reverse engineer his soloing, the comping and exact voicings are not important to me since I pretty much know what he is doing there and can play something pretty darn close without the hard work of transcribing.


The magic of the solos is what I am after, like when Barry Harris said he first got out in Detroit to play with kids from the other side of town. Barry went on to say that while he could play chords better than kids from the other side who didn't know how to play them, they could solo like mothers and Barry couldn't. He asked his sister how to learn to solo and she gave him a Fats Navarro recording of Webb City with Bud Powell on piano. He had an adjustable record player and could knock it down half-speed to learn what Bud was doing and figure out how to solo. That is what I am aiming at here except I am learning from Walter Bishop, Jr. instead of Bud. Just click on the score below to see or download the whole pdf of the transcription.

Click here to hear an mp3 of Bish's Green Dolphin Street solo.

In a later post I will give a quick run down of my analysis and breakdown of the solo, but in this post I am just presenting it. Oh also the chords written over the lead line are just the standard changes to the tune, just used to help in analyzing the lead line. Like I said I didn't transcribing his chording but it sounds like he is sticking close to the standard changes throughout. If a line doesn't look like it fits, check the record to see what Bish actually played in terms of chords but just my first big picture glance tells me that he was playing and thinking standard changes.

As for future posts, we have the breakdown of this solo and right now I am about halfway through Bish's Blues in the Closet solo. In a few weeks I should have new solo down and posted as well. Oh by the way, I am only going to be transcribing the main versions of the tunes which were originally put out on the Speak Low LP, not the alternate takes that are included on the Milestones CD. Also would like to transcribe a Rhythm changes tune from Bish but I haven't found one yet. Any suggestions?

Peace Out,
D

Welcome to Bish's Place where Walter Bishop Jr.'s Transcriptions Live

Okay here is the deal. Walter Bishop Jr. is my favorite jazz pianist and is highly underrated. So I decided to make a place on the web for his transcriptions to live. Where people can download and analyze, take licks and study.

My top three piano men are Bish, Bud Powell, and Bobby Timmons. Bud Powell is the only guy who has loads of books of transcriptions and analysis and transcriptions posted on the web. Sure he is "The Source" but both Timmons and Bish developed some interesting styles from their Bud Powell roots. Styles worth looking into and studying. Bish has a more rhythmically explosive style than Bud. Bud more flowing and technically challenging. Timmons has a more soulful and down home take on the Bud Powell way.

Anyway I have recently started transcribing Bish. Right now I am working transcribing all of his solos from the Speak Low (aka Milestones) album. I will be posting them as I complete them. Hopefully, every couple of months I'll be posting a new solo for all to see.

In the meantime if any of you have any transcriptions from Walter Bishop Jr. that you'd like to share, I could post it here or put up a link to your blog.

This man's genius needs to be celebrated. Down the road after I complete the Speak Low LP, I will begin transcribing Bish from the DVD We Remember Bird. Recorded in 1964, it features Sonny Stitt, J. J. Johnson, Howard McGhee, Tommy Potter and Kenny Clarke.

Peace Until the Next Post,
AnchovyD